The consummate leader cultivates the moral law, and strictly adheres to method and discipline; thus it is in his power to control success.

In war, practice dissimulation and you will succeed.

A leader leads by example not by force.

Now this foreknowledge cannot be elicited from spirits; it cannot be obtained inductively from experience, nor by any deductive calculation.

When the higher officers are angry and insubordinate, and on meeting the enemy give battle on their own account from a feeling of resentment, before the commander-in-chief can tell whether or not he is in a position to fight, the result is ruin.

To maintain an army at a distance causes the people to be impoverished.

Order or disorder depends on organisation and direction; courage or cowardice on circumstances; strength or weakness on tactical dispositions.